For the past year I have debated the issues being considered in Division II’s “Life in the Balance” movement. There are some outstanding ideas I wholeheartedly support and several I am opposed to with the same passion. I have aligned each with core philosophies I’ve honed from a career in intercollegiate athletics. Indeed, the perspectives on these difficult and divisive issues can be shaped by our position in the fray.  

Student-athletes and coaches want to play their games as much as athletics department leaders do. Personally, I find the comment that athletics staffs feel overworked because of too many games laughable. Almost every negative comment I have ever heard about working in college athletics has focused on the many other non-competition-related activities, not the games themselves.

Athletics directors must always balance conflicting goal sets among coaches, student-athletes, administrators and constituents to meet the bottom line. As with most complex organizations, presidents and chancellors have the overriding responsibility for making final decisions. 

Depending on the school’s organizational structure, most campus leaders lean heavily on the input from athletics department leadership in combination with their executives to formulate and implement institutional policies. While I understand the July 22 statement in The NCAA News (“Whenever you have varying opinions on a difficult issue like this, the wisest place to go for the final decision is the group that best sees the big picture…In this case, that is our Presidents Council first, then the Management Council.”), I also respectfully disagree with that basic assumption.

Generally, the top leaders in large organizations receive only a small, filtered selection of information. That is why CEOs must rely on their staffs to provide relevant information required to review the big picture. Keeping an eye on the big picture is one of the primary reasons an athletics director has a job.

In this big picture, many in Division II see cutting competition as an absolute in reducing costs. However, at Fort Lewis College (my institution), this becomes a net cost increase as we lose home soccer matches and the subsequent income from large attendance. The rationale to cut back one basketball game makes even less sense as that creates a negative economic impact for many schools, most of which already take off a week during the holiday break.

My suggestion is more limited, yet accomplishes the same goal. Unpackage the presentation of proposals, reduce/change qualification requirements for NCAA championships and let the institutions or conferences decide what works best for them.   We all need limits for the good of the game and student-athlete well-being. However, we also need to formulate ideas that will allow local control and fairness on an institutional, regional and national level.  

Moving the start of the fall seasons back a week is a no-brainer, as is taking a week off during the December/January break. Division II could also move the spring-sport championships one week earlier and eliminate nontraditional season competition.   Potential practice time reductions could be in order, too.

However, it is a mistake to designate exact dates that affect each school in different ways, depending on their institutional calendars and policies. Some schools could have two weeks off during the middle of their seasons, while others just one. The limited approach requires student-athletes to have seven consecutive days off during this time as designated by the institution or conference.   

Rule changes on playing seasons do not necessarily apply in the same manner from one region to another. That is why we need to be careful and prudent about applying solutions that some consider knee-jerk reactions.  

Much good can come from taking on difficult concepts – if we get them right. But that means we all need to make our voices heard. Silence from good people allows mistaken philosophies to flourish.  

A life balanced by focusing on cutting the one thing we love most about college athletics makes little sense. There are other options.

Kelly Higgins is the athletics director at Fort Lewis College and a former board member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.